The invention is directed to a device for guiding rolling material in a rolling mill stand of a structural steel rolling mill, particularly for the lateral guidance of the flanges of steel sections, e.g. of a section beam in a flange edging stand within a reversing tandem stand group comprising a universal stand, an edging stand and a universal stand.
It is known that a so-called top pressure or bottom pressure is exerted on the rolling material during rolling, so that the rolling material is deflected downward or upward, respectively. Stripping fittings are installed behind the rolls, the rolling material running out between the stripping fittings immediately after delivery, so that the rolling material leaving the rolls is not crooked. In order to feed the rolling material to the rolls in the desired position, feed fittings are also usually provided on the input side of the rolling material at the rolling mill stand. In order to direct and guide the rolling material in a trouble-free and completely automatic manner during its movement from one rolling mill stand to the other, the advisable construction of the fittings before and after the rolls of a rolling mill stand is consequently of great importance. Disturbances in the required continuous rolling operation are more often caused by insufficiently guiding fittings than by a failure of the mechanical part of the rolling mill stand. Also, in the maintenance of the rolling mill stand or when changing the rolls, the construction of the fittings is a very substantial maintenance factor. Therefore, in the unpublished German Patent application No. P 38 05 475.2, a device has been proposed for the guidance of the rolling material between the rolls of a rolling mill stand, particularly between the horizontal work rolls of a rolling mill stand of a structural mill, in which the guide fitting is connected with the displaceably supported chock of the rolling mill stand housing receiving the rolls for the purpose of improved adaptability of the horizontal guide fitting to every rolling pass and for rapid assembly/disassembly. Such a device for guiding the rolling material has proved to be particularly advisable. It has also become known, in addition, that the lateral guidance of the rolling material, particularly of section beams in a rolling mill stand of the type mentioned above, must be improved if the rolling output of the stand and/or the changing of the rolls is to be optimized.
The present constructions, e.g. in a rolling mill stand of the generic type mentioned above, provide lateral flange guides, e.g. for section beams, which extend in one piece from the input side of the rolling mill stand until the delivery side and are cut out in sectors in the area of the roll gap of the horizontal rolls in order to adapt the side guides to the smallest rolled girder with the smallest flange width (FIG. 2/FIG. 3). As a result of the deep cut out portions in the area of the rolls, the side guides are greatly weakened and the wider flanges of large section beams are guided very poorly with the result that the flanges are formed in a saber-like manner. The wax-soft steel penetrates partially into the cut out portions of the side guides, which must compulsorily lead to the immediate interruption of the rolling process with partially considerable damage to the rolling mill stand. The elimination of such damages due to imperfect lateral guidance of the flanges is particularly time-consuming and cost-intensive, since the entire rolling mill trail is affected by it and must be turned off.
Beyond this, the known one-piece flange guides have the disadvantage that when changing rolls, the top roll, including its chocks, must be lifted over the upper edge of the side guide in order to move the rolls and chock out of the window of the rolling mill stand toward the operating side. For this purpose, a fork-like supporting construction is attached to a movable displacement platform. When changing the rolls the supporting construction is slid by means of the displacement platform between the rolls which are moved apart. The lower fork is supported on the bottom chocks and the upper fork carries the top roll including its chocks. For reasons of safety, the fork construction must be constructed so as to be particularly solid and torsion-resistant because of the loading of rolls and chocks weighing tons, which ultimately causes high costs in material and manufacturing.